Ice Age (Original Movie)
Ice Age is a 2002 American computer-animated adventure comedy-drama film released by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Chris Wedge from a story by Michael J. Wilson and is the first movie created by Blue Sky Studios. The story follows a group of Paleolithical mammals attempting to return a lost human baby to his parents. The film stars Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary and Chris Wedge. and was met with mostly positive reviews and was a box office success, starting a series with three sequels, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and Ice Age: Continental Drift. Plot The film begins with a saber-toothed squirrel named Scrat (Voiced by Chris Wedge), who is trying to find somewhere to store his prized acorn. Eventually, as he tries to stomp it into the ground, he causes a large crack in the ground that extends for miles and miles and sets off a large avalanche. He barely escapes, but finds himself stepped on by a herd of prehistoric animals. The animals are trying to avoid the ice age by migrating south, except for Manfred, an agitated mammoth (Ray Romano) who is heading north. Sid (John Leguizamo), a clumsy Megalonyx sloth left behind by his family, decides to go on by himself and angers Carl and Frank, two Brontops by ruining their salad and is attacked. Sid is soon saved by Manfred, who fights them off. Not wanting to be alone and unprotected, Sid follows Manfred. Meanwhile, Soto, the leader of a Smilodon pride wants revenge on a group of humans by eating the chief's baby son, Roshan, alive. Soto leads a raid on the human camp, during which Roshan's mother is separated from the rest and jumps down a waterfall when cornered by Soto's lieutenant, Diego (Denis Leary). For his failure, Diego is sent to find and retrieve the baby. Sid and Manfred spot Roshan and his mother near the lake, having survived her plunge. The mother only has enough strength to trust her baby to Manfred before she disappears. After much persuasion by Sid, they decide to return Roshan but when they reach the human settlement, they find it deserted. They meet up with Diego, who convinces the pair to let him help by tracking the humans. The four travel on, with Diego secretly leading them to his pack for an ambush. While having small adventures on their way, they reach a cave with several drawings, drawn by humans where Sid and Diego learn about Manfred's past and his previous interactions with the humans, in which his wife and son were killed, leaving Manfred a cynical loner. Later Manfred, Sid, Diego and Roshan were almost to Half-Peak, but encounter a river of lava. Manfred and Sid, along with Roshan, make it safely but Diego struggles, about to fall into the lava. Manfred rescues him narrowly missing a fall into the lava himself. The herd takes a break for the night and Roshan takes his first walking steps to Diego. The next day the herd approach the ambush, causing Diego to confess to Manfred and Sid about the ambush, and tells them to trust him. The herd battles Soto's pack and a short fight ensues. As Soto closes in for the kill on Manfred, Diego leaps and stops Soto, who wounds Diego in the process. Manfred knocks Soto into a rock wall, causing several sharp icicles to fall on Soto, killing him. Manfred and Sid leave Diego on his insistence and take Roshan back to his tribe. So Manfred and Sid manage to return Roshan to his father, and Diego rejoins them. The group begins to head off to warmer climates. 20,000 years later, Scrat is frozen in an ice cube that washes up on the shore of a tropical island. The sun slowly melts the cube, bringing Scrat back to life but the acorn, which is just out of his reach, ends up being washed away by the tide. Scrat then explodes out of the ice cube in anger and hits his head repetitively on a tree, which drops a coconut. Believing it to be a giant acorn, Scrat's anger immediately turns to glee at this new find. He tries to pack it into the ground as he did previously with his other acorns, but in the process causes a large crack in the ground that makes its way up the side of a volcano and causes it to erupt. Cast The characters are all prehistoric animals. The animals can talk to and understand each other and are voiced by a variety of famous actors. Like many films of prehistoric life, the rules of time periods apply very loosely, as many of the species shown in the film never actually lived in the same time periods or the same geographic regions. *Ray Romano as Manfred "Manny", '''a woolly mammoth *John Leguizamo as Sid, a giant ground sloth *Denis Leary' as Diego, a Smilodon *'Director Chris Wedge' as Scrat, a "saber-toothed" squirrel *'Goran Višnjić' as Soto, a Smilodon *'Jack Black' as Zeke, a Smilodon *'Diedrich Bader ' as Oscar a Smilodon *'Alan Tudyk ' as Lenny, a Homotherium *'Cedric the Entertainer' as Carl, a Brontops *'Stephen Rootas Frank, a Brontops *Jane Krakowski' as Rachel, a female sloth *'Lorri Bagley ' as Jennifer, a female sloth Production The film was originally to be directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, and produced in traditional animation by Fox Animation Studios, but the rise of CGI animation and the failure of Titan A.E. destroyed Fox's traditional animation division; hence, Bluth and Goldman transferred their duties for Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha from Fox's CGI division Blue Sky. Theatrical Release Reception Ice Age was released into theaters on March 15th 2002 and got a 77% approval rating on the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 164 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "Even though Ice Age is treading over the same grounds as '''Monsters, Inc'. and Shrek, it has enough wit and laughs to stand on its own." Similar site Metacritic had a score of 60% out of 31 reviews. The film was nominated for AFI's 10 Top 10 in the "Animation" genre. The film had a $46.3 million opening weekend, a large number not usually seen until the summer season, and way ahead of Fox's most optimistic projection of about $30 million. Ice Age broke the record for a March opening (first surpassed in 2006 by its first sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown) and was the then-third-best opening ever for an animated feature—after Monsters, Inc. ($62.6 million) and Toy Story 2 ($57.4 million). Ice Age finished its domestic box office run with $176,387,405 million and grossed $383,257,136 million worldwide, being the 9th highest gross of 2002 in North America and the 8th best worldwide at the time. Home Media Ice Age was released on Video and DVD on November 26th 2002. It was released on Blu-Ray March 2008. Sequels Ice age sparwed three sequels. Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary and Chris Wedge reprise their roles of Manny, Sid, Diego and Scrat. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) The Meltdown, the film’s first sequel, was released on March 31st 2006 and focues on the animals trying to escape an impending flood. Ice Age 3: Dawn of The Dinosaurs (2009) Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the film’s second sequel, was released on July 1st 2009 in 3D '''and focues on the animals discovering Dinosaurs beneath the earth. Ice Age 4: Continental Drift (2012) '''Continental Drift, the film’s third sequel, was released in July 13th 2012 in 3D and focues on the animals battling pirates. This film celebrated the film’s 10th anniversary. Ice Age 5 (2016) On December 20th 2013, 20th Century Fox has scheduled a fourth sequel for July 15th 2016. Trivia Posters Category:2000s Movies Category:Blue Sky Movies Category:First Movies in Franchsies Category:Theatrical Movies Category:Movies